Although outfielder Garrett Mitchell gracefully accepted congratulations for robbing Manny Machado of a tying home run late in the Milwaukee Brewers’ Division Series-clinching victory, he clearly wasn’t all that impressed with himself.

To Mitchell, that dramatic play was just the predictable result of the same daily preparation and meticulous execution that made Milwaukee the majors’ best team throughout the regular season — and which has now sent the Brewers roaring back to the National League Championship Series.

Mitchell tripled and scored the tiebreaking run in the fifth inning before making a pivotal catch on Machado’s drive to the wall in the eighth, and the Brewers finished off the San Diego Padres with a 3-1 victory Wednesday night, winning their best-of-five series in four games.

When Machado stepped to the plate, Mitchell was already shaded to right-center, thanks to the Brewers’ scouting report.

He coolly tracked the 406-foot fly off the bat, and he already knew the wall was quite short in that part of Petco Park, so he realized he would only need to reach up to catch the ball.

The Brewers pride themselves on being ready to handle anything — even something wild enough to silence a roaring sellout crowd in San Diego during the heat of October.

“Just got a good jump off the bat,” Mitchell said amid the Brewers’ beer-drenched postgame celebration in the visitors’ clubhouse. “When I got to the wall, I just had to stay composed and make the catch. I didn’t really have to jump. I knew the wall isn’t as high as at other fields.”

Mitchell also drove in Sal Frelick with Milwaukee’s first run as the Brewers snapped their 12-game postseason road losing streak since 2018 and reached the team’s fifth League Championship Series.

While four Brewers pitchers combined on a three-hitter and the defense made nearly every big play, Milwaukee’s lineup calmly worked counts, pounded 10 hits through the Padres’ defense and manufactured enough runs to head home smiling.

Game 2 hero Jackson Chourio capped his high-impact series by driving in Mitchell to become the Brewers’ career leader in postseason RBIs at just 22 years old. Chourio has 17 RBIs, including six in this series, in 16 playoff games.

Pages delivers for Dodgers

With one pivotal swing, Andy Pages sent the Los Angeles Dodgers into the National League Championship Series and transformed his postseason legacy.

Pages drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the seventh inning to give Los Angeles the lead, and the Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1 on Wednesday night to clinch their NL Division Series.

The Dodgers won back-to-back games in Atlanta to take the best-of-five matchup 3-1 as they seek to become the first National League team to win three straight World Series.

It was an uplifting moment for Pages, who had two hits in the series-clinching win. A year ago, he went 4 for 51 (.078) in the postseason and lost his starting job in the outfield as the Dodgers beat Toronto in the World Series.

“I’ve been preparing myself all series for a moment like that, give myself an opportunity, get a good pitch to hit,” Pages said.